View Full Version : Spybot-S&D 1.6, beta 1
Update: continued in beta 2 thread!
As announced on the website, we've starting beta testing the next release, 1.6: spybotsd160-beta1.exe (please see beta 2 instead)
The first aspect of testing mostly includes the scanning speed. How much did it improve for you, compared to 1.5.2?
We also want to know whether all our bug fixes are satisfying; if you want to help towards getting a faster public release, here's a list of all changes since 1.5.2: change history (http://forums.spybot.info/projectsearch.php?do=dosearch&projectid%5B%5D=1&issuestatusid%5B%5D=7&issuestatusid%5B%5D=11&issuestatusid%5B%5D=12&issuestatusid%5B%5D=17&issuestatusid%5B%5D=18&addressedgroup%5B%5D=13)
You replying to those with "Fix confirmed" or any problems you've encountered would help us a lot.
Presumed Questions & Answers
Q: When will you release a final version of 1.6?
A: U.S. Independence Day (4th of July) would be nice. Provided that there's enough feedback and no bigger problems appearing.
Q: How did you make it faster?
A: As you may have read on the news page, we've integrated parts of the new file scanner engine designed for Spybot-S&D 2.0, which was rewritten to take many aspects of modern malware fighting into account - those include the fast growing size of the database, the variety of malware and a few other aspects.
Q: Will it still be able to do the same things, or did you give up features to make it faster?
A: Actually, some of the new algorithms allow the engine to be even more flexible, so we could add features that we kept back so far to save scanning time.
Q: Is there room for even more improvements?
A: The current improvements do not affect the special deep scanning of the Download Directories feature yet, where we'll also be able to make some improvements, but haven't decided on the most performant method yet.
Q: Are there any other new things in 1.6 I should note?
A: There will be one other huge feature that'll be addressing another larger type of complaint we've received. Stay tuned to the beta forum, and you'll see.
dj.turkmaster
2008-06-05, 23:32
Thanks for the new version pepiMK and spybot team. It's scanning speed has improved greatly. It is unbelievable that a very succesful program like this is still and always freeware :) [Beacuse of a great love :oops:] Ok now. I have downloaded updated scanned and not encountered any problems yet. There is only one minor issue. When we click on the search for updates button the progress bar is not being seen completely. I tihnk it would be nice if you adjust it's size :bigthumb:
as a long time user of spy-bot, an i think its one of the best programs available, i have just downloaded an installed 1.6 beta, an it also works GREAT. the scan time for me was cut from 37mins to 16 mins. just one small prob, that i havent figured out yet is that the font size is a little too small. great job guys. keep up the good work!
Asus L3500TP
2008-06-06, 01:35
Very good for me too !
Time also faster than 1.5 may be time cut in 2 !!!
@+
Asus L3500TP
2008-06-06, 01:41
Erase using Spybot - Search & Destroy ???
Is that function ok with 1.6.0.25 ?
This post : http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=20388
Is it ok for the 1.6.0.25 version ?
Is it nécessary to do manually the same modifications :
For 64 bit systems its probably:
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\sddelfile]
@="Erase using Spybot - Search && Destroy"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\sddelfile\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Spybot - Search & Destroy\\SDDelFile.exe\" \"%1\" /ask"
For 32 bit systems, it is:
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\sddelfile]
@="Erase using Spybot - Search && Destroy"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\sddelfile\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Spybot - Search & Destroy\\SDDelFile.exe\" \"%1\" /ask"
streetwolf
2008-06-06, 04:07
I no longer have the Spybot tab in a file's Properties window as I did in 1.5.
But 1.6 is like lightening compared to it's predecessor! At least 3x+ faster.
When skin settings are saved then they are saved to :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Safer Networking Limited\SpybotSnD\skin
On loading skin settings Spybot beta is querying :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Safer Networking Limited\SpybotSnD\skins
with the obvious result of NAME _NOT_FOUND.
Just a minor bug to fix:oops:
@dj: search for updates? hmmm... the "search" progress bar usually takes just a second or two, but I just checked that when the file was downloaded and all, it is set explicitely to 100%. Same for the progress bar for downloads. Not sure where your problem could be... are you using any non-standard XP theme maybe?
@Asus: the installer didn't even write these registry entries.
It was too confusing for users I think, some mistook it for the Secure Shredder for example.
Maybe I could add it back to be available on when someone chooses the "Custom" option during installation?
"Full" would still mean most people installing it without knowing ;)
@streetwolf:
How Do I Enable the Spybot Tab in File Properties Panels? :)
And fixed: Explorer propery sheet plugin: option during installation (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?do=gotonote&issuenoteid=966)
@nullptr:
Thanks! Fixed: Skins not loading in latest beta (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=255)
Have just installed 1.6 beta and what an improvement in the scanning speed. Nice job guys. One small problem I have noted on my system. The skins are not taking. That is, I select the skin click on apply and the UI changes. However, when I close the application and reopen the skin reverts back to the default. I`m using XP SP3.
Kind Regards
StuNun
Thanks for giving the beta a try!
See the last link in my post directly above yours, problem noted and will be fixed in the next release :)
nOInfectIOn
2008-06-06, 14:00
WOW... Big shot!
scan-time decreased:
- 161215 def/ tracks
- XP, SP3
- msconfig: everything enabled
1.52: about 21 min
1.6: 5:50 min... :eek: :)
Although the scan is faster, the programme is still sluggish, like when you open the programme itself, or when you immunize the database.
dj.turkmaster
2008-06-06, 14:55
here it is: I know it is nothing important or not worthy to tell but as it is easy to fix i wanted you to know. I am using windowsxp with the default theme
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4258/spybotwn3.jpg
@dj.turkmaster: Ah, I did expect something gone missing elsewhere somehow, sure, there it is easy to fix, already done, thanks :)
@djpailo: well, the overall GUI replacement won't take place before 2.0. Search the forums for all the protests when we attempt to slim down anything in the "known" versions... for example the shredder discussions ;)
darkraven_ph
2008-06-06, 16:46
Is th'r any plan of integrating a real time protection from S&D version 2:)
Yes, "realer" time than TeaTimer ;)
Blocking files before they're executed etc.
Also using the classification database of RunAlyzer as an advanced decision system. More efforts to improve that database in planing as well ;)
Hi Pepi. THANKS for your continuous improvements
I just download the new version (beta) and I will test it on my old W98, the semi-old W2x and the XP-Sp2.
I will tell you guys about my findings
Ahh, I almost forgot, better late than never... I have notice a grate improvement on the memory utilization of Tea Timer (V1.5.2.0) :bigthumb:!!
Thanks guys!!!
I assume that the correct or wise way to do it is:
1 un-immunize all
2 uninstall previous version
3 install the new one
The question is: How can I back-up or save the black/white lists of Tea Timer?
Becky
@dj.turkmaster: Ah, I did expect something gone missing elsewhere somehow, sure, there it is easy to fix, already done, thanks :)
@djpailo: well, the overall GUI replacement won't take place before 2.0. Search the forums for all the protests when we attempt to slim down anything in the "known" versions... for example the shredder discussions ;)
Yup, I can certainly appreciate that. Well, its probably my five year old computer, but at least it hasn't ended up like the bloated ad-aware 2008. :laugh:
Zer0 Voltage
2008-06-07, 05:11
I think I may have found a problem with the English.chm help file.
Can someone please try to reproduce this:
Open Spybot-S&D, click on Help (in the menu bar), and select Help.
Once the help interface opens, click on the Search tab, enter something in the keyword field (I was trying "explorer"), and click on the "List Topics" button.
For me, on two separate XP SP3 systems, this results in a permanent Spybot hang (both the help interface and the program). Nothing ever appears in the topics list, the mouse pointer stays an hourglass, and Windows reports the program is not responding. I have to manually force it closed - after which I get one of those error report prompts.
On the same systems, this didn't happen with version 1.5.2.20.
Anyone else see this?
perfect! :)
the new beta reduces scanning time from 13 minutes to 4 minutes in vista x64 with core2quad q6600. :eek:
will the new version of spybot will support multithread or multicore processor??
Rosenfeld
2008-06-07, 16:04
I think I may have found a problem with the English.chm help file.
Can someone please try to reproduce this:
Open Spybot-S&D, click on Help (in the menu bar), and select Help.
Once the help interface opens, click on the Search tab, enter something in the keyword field (I was trying "explorer"), and click on the "List Topics" button.
For me, on two separate XP SP3 systems, this results in a permanent Spybot hang (both the help interface and the program). Nothing ever appears in the topics list, the mouse pointer stays an hourglass, and Windows reports the program is not responding. I have to manually force it closed - after which I get one of those error report prompts.
On the same systems, this didn't happen with version 1.5.2.20.
Anyone else see this?
I can confirm this on XP SP3. Two event logs:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 07/06/2008
Time: 15:00:03
User: N/A
Computer: DJDRRM3J
Description:
Hanging application SpybotSD.exe, version 1.6.0.25, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67 ion Hang
0010: 20 20 53 70 79 62 6f 74 Spybot
0018: 53 44 2e 65 78 65 20 31 SD.exe 1
0020: 2e 36 2e 30 2e 32 35 20 .6.0.25
0028: 69 6e 20 68 75 6e 67 61 in hunga
0030: 70 70 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 pp 0.0.0
0038: 2e 30 20 61 74 20 6f 66 .0 at of
0040: 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 30 fset 000
0048: 30 30 30 30 30 00000
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 07/06/2008
Time: 15:00:16
User: N/A
Computer: DJDRRM3J
Description:
Fault bucket 789846428.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 42 75 63 6b 65 74 3a 20 Bucket:
0008: 37 38 39 38 34 36 34 32 78984642
0010: 38 0d 0a 8..
I've checked that the english.chm file is unblocked.
@PepiMK:
ich kann das genannte Problem von Zer0_Voltage und Rosenfeld bestätigen. Spybot hängt sich bei mir komplett auf. :)
Kann es sein, dass sich zudem zwei kleine Fehler im Sprachpaket eingeschlichen haben? Zwei Buttons werden im Sprachpaket "Deutsch" in englischer Sprache angezeigt. Ist das ein Bug oder so gewollt? Dazu gibts die Zip-Datei.
Meine Geschwindigkeitsverbesserungen gibts hier:
http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=248#note972
Grüße,
-Matt-
When is the 2.0 version sceduled ?
Greetz, Red.
Asus L3500TP
2008-06-08, 17:58
Hello,
Some button are not translated in french :
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7867/tab1gp4.jpg
See you !
Huge improvement. :)
1.5.2 with HOSTS 33:01
1.5.2 without HOSTS 10:12
1.6 with HOSTS 20:23
1.6 without HOSTS 5:34
My HOSTS file has 145000 entries if you're curious about the huge differences.
Two small things, 1.6 always starts on the settings page. Can I stop this?
And can I get rid of the hint of the day?
Hostfile scanning takes most of the time here too. Maybe that should be improved :yes:
Greetz, Red.
Not seeing much in the way of hard figures in this thread for the actual difference in scanning speed, so I'll give you mine:
Keep in mind here that the time I'm giving you is the time from which I click on the "Check for Problems" button until the final results of the scan shows up. (This is on my wifes' computer, a Win XP Home, SP3 64-bit w/ an Athlon 64 Processor 3800+, 446MB of RAM):
v.1.5.2.20 (full scan, including usage tracks): 19 minutes
v.1.6.0.25 (full scan, including usage tracks): 3 minutes
An absolutely GREAT job, my friend! (I can do the same thing for my own computer, too, if you like). Pete
Rosenfeld
2008-06-09, 01:08
Spy1,
FYI, if you look at the bottom of Spybot (below the progress bar), when the scan is completed it shows the time taken in (). That is the time you might report.
Rosenfeld - Thank you, but I already un-installed the old versions from both computers. The stop watch method'll have to do.
Here's the results on my computer:
v.1.5.1.19 - 19 minutes
v.1.6.0.25 - 5 minutes
That's on a Compaq Presario, Win XP Pro SP3, 32-bit AMD Athlon Processor 1.3GHz, 1 GB RAM
Zer0 Voltage
2008-06-09, 04:40
Platform = XP Pro SP2 (under VMware Workstation 6.0.4 build 93057) with nothing else running
Hardware = 1.6 GHz Mobile AMD Sempron 2800+ with 384 Meg RAM and a 5,200 rpm IDE hard drive
Total Data = 3,488,441,394 bytes (within 6,187 dirs and 19,293 files)
Full Scan Times (both tested with the 2008-06-04 detection updates):
v1.5.2.20 = 20 minutes 17 seconds
v1.6.0.25 = 4 minutes 2 seconds
That would make the new beta 5 times faster! Or 503% faster if you prefer. :2thumb:
Ah, finally people with similar times to mine :)
Nice to read you again, spy1 :)
Re Help: that's spooky, since the help hasn't been upgraded yet, is created with Microsofts own HTML Help Workshop (no thirdparty tools).
Question: does the help file behave similar badly when opening directly from Windows Explorer (it's a file English.chm in the Help subfolder in the Spybot folder).
Re Hosts Scan: good point, wasn't aware of the difference there, added a feature request (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=259) we'll try to implement before release the next beta :)
@Syst: see introduction Q&A, it won't :)
Zer0 Voltage
2008-06-09, 07:02
Re Help: that's spooky, since the help hasn't been upgraded yet, is created with Microsofts own HTML Help Workshop (no thirdparty tools).
Question: does the help file behave similar badly when opening directly from Windows Explorer (it's a file English.chm in the Help subfolder in the Spybot folder).
Not for me. Only happens when I open it through the Spybot interface.
Zer0 Voltage
2008-06-09, 07:06
Oh, and the scan times within the "Spybot-S&D" tab (added by registering sdfiles.dll) are also significantly slower than normal scans. Not sure if that's a true bug or not.
Rosenfeld
2008-06-09, 20:03
Help file works fine when opene4d directly in Windows Explorer.
v. 1.6 = 10 minutes
v. 1.4 = 40 minutes (I never successfully upgraded to 1.5.2.)
I get the app hang too when searching an index item. However, this does not occur in Windows Explorer. Mine is error 1002.
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 6/9/2008
Time: 5:35:36 PM
User: N/A
Computer: XXXX
Description:
Hanging application SpybotSD.exe, version 1.6.0.25, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67 ion Hang
0010: 20 20 53 70 79 62 6f 74 Spybot
0018: 53 44 2e 65 78 65 20 31 SD.exe 1
0020: 2e 36 2e 30 2e 32 35 20 .6.0.25
0028: 69 6e 20 68 75 6e 67 61 in hunga
0030: 70 70 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 pp 0.0.0
0038: 2e 30 20 61 74 20 6f 66 .0 at of
0040: 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 30 fset 000
0048: 30 30 30 30 30 00000
This is on XP Home SP3. I have saved a minidump if it may help.
barbossa
2008-06-10, 09:25
Ah, finally people with similar times to mine :)
Nice to read you again, spy1 :)
Question: does the help file behave similar badly when opening directly from Windows Explorer (it's a file English.chm in the Help subfolder in the Spybot folder).
positivly not: opened from explorer, the help works correctly.
Opened from S&D it hangs (WP prof SP2) but can be closed normally :cool:
@Hosts scan issue: possible improvement implemented and forwarded for testing :)
@Zer0 Voltage: loading the database costs a few seconds, that's a trade-off for regular scanning speed that cannot be gotten rid off.
For this case, I've added another feature request (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=261).
@Help issue: going to look into that next, thanks for the feedback Re: Explorer!
Update to the help issue:
Bug tracker (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=262)
What I noticed is that the index entries that cause the crash are actually those that would, when run from explorer, show a popup to allow the viewer to select a sub-entry, while those that do not crash Spybot-S&D are those that lead directly to a page.
Zer0 Voltage
2008-06-11, 01:51
@Zer0 Voltage: loading the database costs a few seconds, that's a trade-off for regular scanning speed that cannot be gotten rid off.
Sorry about that, I didn't explain what I was referring to clearly enough.
This is not an issue with single file scanning. Nor is it an issue with the initial database load time.
This "slow scanning" I am referring to is the scanning that takes place after the database loads.
In other words, lets take an example of a folder with 20 files in it. You either select the folder or go inside and select all the files, bring up the properties, and click on the "Spybot-S&D" tab.
Initially, you see a list of all the files with "... waiting ..." next to all of them.
Then the database loads. In my testing, this initialization takes 8-10 seconds.
Then you start seeing the file scanning progress. As each file is scanned, the "... waiting ..." message changes to "nothing found" (at least when nothing is found... :) which is what I will assume for this example). Also during this time, the progress bar along the bottom is progressing.
It is that post-database load file scanning progress which I mean is noticeably slower than a normal scan (from the full interface). One file scans, wait..., wait..., another scans, wait..., wait..., another scan, wait..., wait..., wait..., and so on.
Normal scans just fly across files. In this case, there is a very distinct pause between each file changing from "waiting" to "nothing found". The pause is certainly not 8-10 seconds like the initial wait used to load the database, but it's also no where near as fast as a normal scan.
Stranger still is that in most cases (for me), after each pause, 2 files are scanned simultaneously - meaning 2 files will change to "nothing found" at once. But the pause is still longer than expected for even a double-file scan. It's really the scan time as a whole (after the database load) which is noticeably slower.
That's not to say I'd complain if the database load time could be shortened too... :p:
What I noticed is that the index entries that cause the crash are actually those that would, when run from explorer, show a popup to allow the viewer to select a sub-entry, while those that do not crash Spybot-S&D are those that lead directly to a page.
I couldn't reproduce that. Every search hangs for me if I go through the Spybot interface.
Opened from S&D it hangs (WP prof SP2) but can be closed normally
This also isn't true for me. I cannot close it normally. I have to force it shut or kill it from the Task Manager.
@Zer0: understood ;) that speed you mean is the one I refer to in the feature request as well.
That you'll see two entries is due to one being a "regular" scan, and one being "heuristic" (assuming that if you're looking at one specific file, you want to be even more paranoid than during a regular scan), the later being the cause that this scan seems to take longer.
On XP or later, this listview control would show "regular" vs. "heuristic" as headers, making it easier to recognize.
What you see "fly through" during a full scan cannot be compared "by file" I'm afraid. I think this'll become easier in the course of the next weeks, there's also some documentation waiting to be published ;)
As for the help, I spoke about the "index" where this happens. On the search tab I agree, all searches freeze.
Still looking for the source of the problem, it's not a general problem with our help file handling, but "special" to Spybot-S&D, probably conflicting with something I haven't found yet.
Zer0 Voltage
2008-06-12, 01:19
Ah, I misunderstood. I thought you were saying that if you searched on something that was an exact single result topic match in the index it wasn't hanging for you. :)
Thanks for the further clarification on the partial scanning. After reading your post and now looking more carefully I see what you mean.
I am, however, running XP but still do not see "regular" or "heuristic" headers - nor any headers anywhere in fact. Am I missing something obvious here too?
It would be nice if the interface could show that more clearly at some point in the future. Perhaps either separate the list with a gap and show "Regular:" above the first and "Heuristic:" above the second. Or it might look even cleaner if you had just one list (showing only one entry for each file) and then had separate "Regular" and "Heuristic" columns for the results. Of course, I suppose the trade-off there is that it might get cramped (and/or require using the scrollbar to see everything).
Would it perhaps help to [eventually] change the entire way this is done and have partial checks load the full program interface? In other words, add "Scan with Spybot-S&D" to the Explorer context menu and do away with the properties tab method. Would that do anything for [post-interface/database load] scan performance?
Of course that would be more of a longer term goal request. Certainly not as important as turning the beta gold. :)
Quite frankly, I'm just happy to have the feature at all. It's not really "slow" in the sense of being unusable - just slower that the regular scan. Ultimately not that big of a deal.
Thanks again!
In the long term, a system service will keep a scanner ready (even now, we could probably misuse TeaTimer for that, which has a scanner ready - but it is not used by everyone), so that would make that unnecessary.
That could probably lead to a separate scanner window, right ;) (which would have the additional advantage of possibly allowing to be scripted for other single-file scanning purposes than from the Explorer as well)
I attached a screenshot on how it should look to this post. That shows that it should look quite like you suggested :)
The background: blog entry (http://ccrdude.net/2007/06/tlistview-using-modern-styles-known.html). Beginning with XP, Microsoft shipped version 6 of the "Common Controls" libraries. Only with this version, these headers between list items are supported, and they do not ship that version for older Windows versions. This version 6 is responsible for most of the change in look in XP, and applications need to include a "manifest" that tells Windows that they should use this newer version. Windows Explorer has one, I just tested with Total Commander, and it's fine as well. Are you maybe using some other file manager and opening the dialogs from there?
Greetings
Very significant improvement in scan speed on my system:
v.1.5.2.20 (full scan) - 30 minutes
v.1.6.0.25 (full scan): - 14 minutes
Also much faster startup for Spybot and Teatimer, although Teatimer is still much slower starting up than it used to in 1.4 and earlier.
Platform: Win XP Pro SP2, 32-bit Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2.0GHz, 1 GB RAM
Though, one annoyance for me is inability to turn of "temporary files cleaner" dialog which is popping up on startup in this version.
I know it has reason to be there, but since I like to manually check my temp files, It would be nice to have some option too turn off that dialog from appearing at startup.
Maybe there is some way to turn it off in beta or I should hope for that in future final release?
Added a feature request:
Need option to disable temp folder cleaning (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=265)
Sorry for posting in this section but Teatimer slow startup lingers on in this version too. I've been searching through forums and never found real solution. Is it only on some configurations or is it general problem?
I'm having this issue ever since 1.5 and it is really bothering me because I use TeaTimer as my resident protection.
Can you finally clarify this Teatimer issue? Thanks :)
GrailKnight
2008-06-12, 14:51
First off great program & forum. Thanks
I looked for an answer to this minor problem but only found a couple of threads that did not have a concrete answer or I just did not see it.
Issue: Firefox v3 RC 3 is listed twice in Immunization Window of Spybot v1.6b1.
My Profile is not in the default location which would be in WinXP:
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\
but located in C:\Program Files/xxxxxx
Is there a registry entry I can edit to remove the 2nd Fx listing?
or
Perhaps a workaround to remove the 2nd. listing. I have already tried a full Fx and Spybot uninstall then reinstalled Fx first then Spybot 1.6 beta 1but the second entry returns.
Thank you in advance.
Broken Hope
2008-06-12, 17:21
Decided to try out the beta a nice improvement in scanning speed, a full scan went from around 8 minutes down to around 3.
Would it be possible to add an option to disable the tip of the day though?
Very nice job, especially on the expanded Immunization page. K-Meleon browser is 'protected' now as well as Firefox 20014, Operas 8xx and 927, and also IE6 (fwiw). Some anomalies that are in SSD152 remain for me in this beta (will take those to another thread), but a few minor graphics glitches(?) are new - the tiny 'favicon' images seem somehow corrupted (like scanlines through most of them so they appear a bit ghostly and incomplete on the Immunization page and a few other places).
A bit rough on the initial update and scan, but the beta settled in quite well after a few adjustments. Comparative currently:
SSD152 Immunize=55136 scantime=17:11
SSD16beta1 Immunize=98988 scantime=11:06
Lol, Tip of the Day's a good way to tell the two apart for me :)
@niko32: TeaTimer starts up slowly? Or does it just take longer until its icon appears? TeaTimer scans all running processes, so a growing database size could be the reason; in which case the improvement for the Explorer plugin ("single file scan") would be something TeaTimer would earn an improvement from as well.
@GrailKnight: browsers are usually detected by looking for their prefs.js (preferences) file. If you use just one, I would recommend that you search your harddisk for any prefs.js file, and rename the unused one (make sure it's a Firefox prefs.js, other Mozilla products use files of the same name; the folder usually makes it clear what it belongs to).
@Broken Hope: I did add a boolean tweak named "DisableHintOfTheDay" for beta 2, works similar to the other recent ones on the bugtracker :)
I have installed the 1.6 beta on both my home PC and my work PC and have completely different experiences on the two computers. Both run Windows XP Pro SP2 and the hardware components are similar. The major difference is that the work PC is connected to a network.
With version 1.5 both had similar times for scans. At home, 1.6 runs noticeable faster than 1.5. At work, 1.6 is very significantly slower. For example, this morning I started a scan before I left for a meeting at 9am. It is now 12:40pm and the progress bar is between a third and half way.
Any ideas why?
I have installed the 1.6 beta on both my home PC and my work PC and have completely different experiences on the two computers. Both run Windows XP Pro SP2 and the hardware components are similar. The major difference is that the work PC is connected to a network.
With version 1.5 both had similar times for scans. At home, 1.6 runs noticeable faster than 1.5. At work, 1.6 is very significantly slower. For example, this morning I started a scan before I left for a meeting at 9am. It is now 12:40pm and the progress bar is between a third and half way.
Any ideas why?
A followup: I have been away from my computer all day except for two 10 minute periods before this. It is now about 14:30 and the scan that I started at 09:00 is now about two thirds done according to the progress bar. The only foreground process running during this time has been the scan. It appears that the scan frequently stalls for several seconds before continuing.
Now that's quite spooky!
We had stalls on huge temp folders, but that was also with 1.5, that's why 1.6 is now offering to clean it up.
Do those "stalls" mean that nothing happens, or is the hard disk lamp showing heavy disk access in that time?
Is there a difference regarding antivirus application between those machines? AVs might be a bit conflicting in that they scan each file before it's processed by Spybot-S&D, but even that should - in theory - be reduced; unless the AV would now see more suspicious things in Spybot than before.
@niko32: TeaTimer starts up slowly? Or does it just take longer until its icon appears? TeaTimer scans all running processes, so a growing database size could be the reason; in which case the improvement for the Explorer plugin ("single file scan") would be something TeaTimer would earn an improvement from as well.
It takes longer until icon appears. :) I watched it in task manager during startup and it seems that Teatimer.exe very slowly consumes memory until it reaches around 40mb and then icon appears. So I guess it is scanning.
Usually Teatimer Icon appears after 1min and 30s and sometimes Icon just won't appear for even 3 or more minutes.
Problem is that it hogs my CPU on 99% during that time, hence making almost impossible and very slow to run any other program and that is very annoying, especially when I have to do something quickly, but instead I wait and pray for icon to appear and release my computer from it's grasp. :sad:
GrailKnight
2008-06-13, 00:19
[QUOTE=PepiMK;201444]
@GrailKnight: browsers are usually detected by looking for their prefs.js (preferences) file. If you use just one, I would recommend that you search your harddisk for any prefs.js file, and rename the unused one (make sure it's a Firefox prefs.js, other Mozilla products use files of the same name; the folder usually makes it clear what it belongs to).
That explains a lot and I know exactly where the extra prefs.js is located. My backup of Fx that I create daily during beta testing.
Appreciate the quick response.
Thanks
Now that's quite spooky!
We had stalls on huge temp folders, but that was also with 1.5, that's why 1.6 is now offering to clean it up.
Do those "stalls" mean that nothing happens, or is the hard disk lamp showing heavy disk access in that time?
Is there a difference regarding antivirus application between those machines? AVs might be a bit conflicting in that they scan each file before it's processed by Spybot-S&D, but even that should - in theory - be reduced; unless the AV would now see more suspicious things in Spybot than before.
During the stalls I did not notice any disk activity according to the lamp. I noticed the stalls by watching the count in the status bar; it stopped incrementing. There is a difference in antivirus applications. My home PC uses AVG free v8. The work PC uses the corporate version of Norton AV.
Zer0 Voltage
2008-06-13, 01:10
I attached a screenshot on how it should look to this post. That shows that it should look quite like you suggested :)
Unfortunately [for me], on the 4 XP systems I have access to (one of which is a rather fresh XP SP2 install), that is not what I see. Instead I see this:
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/8770/spybotpropertiespanelyk8.jpg
I do see it properly under Vista though. Just no luck under XP.
I've done some initial searching on Common Controls and do seem to have it installed (at least I find mscomctl.ocx and comctl32.ocx). And I tried installing the latest CC updates from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=25437D98-51D0-41C1-BB14-64662F5F62FE&displaylang=en) (as well as the VB6 runtime package (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7b9ba261-7a9c-43e7-9117-f673077ffb3c&DisplayLang=en) which some sites I found suggested). I even tried to manually register comctl32.ocx with REGSVR32 which another site claimed could help. Nothing worked.
I would guess if I'm seeing this on multiple systems it might be a general issue (or at least not uncommon), so I'll keep trying to figure out what's wrong and post the fix if I find it. With enabling this tab now being in the plan for an install option with 1.6, it may end up being useful for others if I can figure out why it's not displaying properly for me.
Of course, if you used separate columns for the "Malware" and "Heuristic" results, Common Controls issues wouldn't be a problem - and you'd have better compatibility with pre-XP systems... ;) :D: But I suppose if the long term goal is for an interface based method anyway, it's not worth worrying about.
Thanks yet again for the additional info! :)
barbossa
2008-06-13, 07:43
Unfortunately I encountered a failure in the "automation" settings:
When having checked
"automatically run ..on systemstart"
and then later tried to uncheck this box it didn`t work.
I could check "no automation" and automation was finished but now it cannot be reactivated. Both "green dots" were seen simultaneously.
BTW: I cannot find this registry entry to disable temp folder cleaning.
Neither in HKCU nor in HKLM or by searching. :oops:
md usa spybot fan
2008-06-13, 07:57
barbossa:
The problem is usually caused by denying the registry changes in TeaTimer when changing the automation for SpybotSD.exe.
To correct the problem:
Go into Spybot > Mode > Advanced mode > Settings > Settings. Check "Run program once at next system startup" and allow the registry changes. Then check "No automation" and allow the registry change.
1.6 is much faster than 1.52 . thanks . will there be setting for ff and opera like in 1.5 , or am i dreaming that there were protection for ff and opera ?
@jerry66: Immunization knows a handful of Mozilla variants and Opera as well.
No direct plugin yet though; a Firefox suggestion (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=162) is on the bugtracker, if anyone with Firefox addon (XUL + DLL combination) knowledge wants to help, he or she would be very welcome, until then it would probably have to wait until someone finds the time to work himself into FF from scratch.
@barbossa: this one (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=265)? will work only with 1.6 beta 2 which is not out yet, and of course it does not exist, these tweaks need to be created by hand, they're not very "official" ;)
Thanks !just changed my registration to match my donation email . so jerry66 is now nas66 .
keep up the great work . I've been using spybot since the begining , first time i paid for it , not the last though . never had a credit card so no paypal .
so far no problems with 1.6 .
pudelein
2008-06-15, 18:04
I have just installed and tested SSD 1.6.0.25 and find it a great improvement: many congratulations!
For the record, my system is running XP (Home edition) SP3 on a 1.7Ghz P4; 512 MB memory; Avira AntiVir free, Comodo Firewall Pro, Memory Firewall, and BOClean.
I have used SSD 1.5.2rc1 (=1.5.1.19) since January, averaging 27.5 minutes per scan, although increasing slightly over time, presumably because of added detections, although a change from AVG to AntiVir may also contribute. I tried 1.5.2, but was not pleased: it took around 50 minutes per scan (only two were done, though).
With SSD 1.6.0.25, my first scan was 19.5 minutes and about 4 minutes of that was scanning bookmarks (see below). Very nice improvement from 1.5.1.19 and a dramatic one from 1.5.2.20.
Now a suggested option: I have four browsers on my system (IE7, FF2, Opera 9.5, SeaMonkey) and go to some trouble to keep their Bookmarks/Favorites synchronized. There is surely no need to scan them all and, as noted above, it would save around 15% of the scan time to scan only one. So an option to select one browser only would be very nice.
I would also suggest making the Hint of the Day optional, except that others have already done that. I vote with them.
CharlesF
2008-06-18, 16:51
You guys have outdone yourselves.
My average scan times have gone from about 50 minutes to under 15. Wow! Well done (1.6 Beta 1 vs 1.5.x)
Regards,
Charles
Always Confused
2008-06-18, 17:46
Sirs, madams, and whomever else:
A pox on you, fie, out, out damned "remained"....
If one allows 1.6.0 to remove temporary files, and if the process finds that some of said files are in use and, therefore, cannot be removed, 1.6.0 has the temerity to report that said files are "remained."
"Remain" is an intransitive verb, as in "I remained" appalled when I saw that strange message in 1.6.0.
I remain your obedient grammar corrector,
Me, myself, and the remainder of whatever remains.
See! That guy *points at Always Confused* has delayed beta 2! :clown:
Thanks for the correction :) If I understood it correctly, it would have to be "... files are in use and remain."?
And while I'm at it, I noticed that I partly wrote temporary files, and in other cases Temporary Files. Updated that as well to lowercase in all instances.
Looking into one final DelZip issue test now, then I'll compile beta 2 :)
Always Confused
2008-06-18, 19:04
I'd say that delaying beta 2 was hard work, but as causing trouble is one of the few things at which I am good....
"...are in use and cannot be removed" might be even better.
I'm glad you caught the inconsistent use of upper and lower case.
(I'm not going to take up space writing about how much faster 1.6 is than previous versions, as that has already been done by others. Therefore, this parenthetical addition is not visible, and shall so remain.)
I was using 1.5.2 and decided to download 1.6.0.25 and test it out to see if it was better and i was not disappointed. The scan time was cut in half and i have had no problems with it. Thanks very much
md usa spybot fan
2008-06-19, 10:22
Spybot 1.6 Beta 1 - Minor typo in installation "Confirm" dialog.
During the installation I received the following "Confirm" dialog.
Confirm
Spybot - Search .Destroy has detected that you have the following products installed. This may cause incompatibilities; for more information, click Yes to visit our website, Ignore to now longer show this warning, or just Cancel.
LavaSoft AdAware
[Yes] [Cancel] [Ignore]
I believe the "now" should be "no".
Thanks, fixed :)
After beta 2 though, that's uploaded and I just need to post that link ;)
TwistedMike
2008-06-19, 20:07
when using the update button on the left side in doesn't give enough time to be able to choose the beta updates or the other languages update
See other sticky, beta 2 is out.
But the behaviour you described is intentional. Some people want the window to need as few clicks as possible (left side button), some want more action (other button).
Options are still available from the regular settings screen, or if you run the updater from Spybot-S&D's start menu group :)
I have had to uninstall Spybot S&D twice since it is hanging up my system due to the huge amount of time needed to scan the files by the "sdfiles.dll" tool. How do I turn this off and scan system manually when I need to since I have 1-2 TByte (terabyte) drives and it takes over 15min to even get a properties menu?
I have unregistered the sdfiles.dll, but that means i have to stop using Spybot. Is there something in the install i can set that will allow me use the new Spybot 1.6 without having it scan my files on all drives and all folders? I don't need that level of "babysitting" and the performance hit is huge.
TIA
Nanouk
Windows XP SP2
HP AMD Dual core, 4GB memory
400GB internal drive
3-2TB Western digital USB2.0
Spybot 1.6 beta (temporarily uninstalled)
I'm not quite sure what you refer to.
SDFiles.dll is a single file on demand scanner, which should not do anything unless you open up the corresponding tab on the properties menu. Just opening the properties dialog itself should not cause any delay.
It is also just registered with files, not with drives, so the size of drives has absolutely nothing to do with the time it'll take.
And why would unregistering SDFiles.dll mean that you have to stop using Spybot-S&D? SDFiles.dll is purely optional?
Are you doing a Select All on all files on the root level of a drive, and selecting properties then? That would be a very... sub-optimal... approach ;) As I wrote above, it's for checking single files, if you want to scan the whole system, the main app is a much better choice (especially since SDFiles.dll does not deal with the registry and various API stuff obviously).
I guess I don't understand fully why when I open a properties menu on a folder that has only 3 items, it opens almost immediately, but when I open a properties menu on my C drive, it takes almost 5 minutes and when I click on the Spybot S&D tag, there are thousands of files with status of ...waiting... ?
When I uninstall Spybot S&D, the sdfiles.dll stays around and registered with the system (regsrv32 /u in safe mode gets it finally).
Without Spybot installed, everything returns to normal with drive property menus opening up immediately. What am I missing?
Don't get me wrong, sir, I LOVE SPYBOT! I have used it for years and have donated every chance I get. I am not denigrating your fine product, but trying to understand its operations so I can continue to use it fine features.
Is there anywhere you can point me to how these internals are suppose to operate so I can be a bit more knowledgeable on their use and features without having to take up your time?
Thanks in advance,
Nanouk
Posting in this thread since I uninstalled beta2 ..
Somehow, the SSD16beta(s) 'lost' the Immunization for K-Meleon .. possibly due to a Registry cleanup I did after uninstalling two previous KM versions prior to installing the present K-Meleon v115. At first the KM Immunization was merely not there in the GUI on the Immunization page (..\Immunization.ini had all 4 KM Imz in the text). No joy in getting it back on the Imz page - either Registry or absolute path was different (KM keeps profile in parent dir if single user, so .. one of the previous versions was multi so /that/ profile was in a subdir of WINDOWS rather than parent dir as now). How does SSD detect for Immunizations of profiles? I'm a bit confused as Opera also does the parent dir profile arrangement and that's fine as far as Immunization goes (properly detected and Imz'd both my 8 and 9 profiles), Firefox is in the usual WINDOWS subdir (only one version and profile) & MSIE is /wherever/...
Undid the remaining Imz for both betas on their GUI pages (2nd only had one FF 'remnant') and uninstalled both, then cleaned out 'remnant' files+dirs. Then did a fresh install of beta1, updated and *still* no K-Meleon Imz. Oh well, why I ask for how SSD detects profiles for Immunization - it /was/ oki for awhile with KM, but now seems to not do as it did previously.
current Imz and scantime (beta1 on WinME):
Immunizations=72755 scantime=11:51
(previous Imz w/ K-Meleon in list, 99202)
K-Meleon has a lot of changes behind it already, might be it's different again ;)
Early versions used <$PROGRAMFILES>\K-Meleon\Profiles\profiles.dat as the index file for profiles. Quite bad of course.
Soon afterwards, it went to <$APPDATA>\K-Meleon\registry.dat, which is more the Mozilla/SeaMonkey style (plus <$APPDATA>\Roaming\... and <$APPDATA>\Local\... for Vista of course).
Just guessing, do you see a file <$APPDATA>\K-Meleon\profiles.ini now? That would be the Firefox profile scheme that more and more Mozilla clones are using.
Or did they switch to the FF3 base already? But that should be supported in the stand-alone immunization demo then.
Since the new install was for single-user (not multi-profile), the profile is in the parent dir C:\Program Files\K-Meleon\Profiles\Default\********.slt dir - kind of like Opera seems to work (parent dir). No K-Meleon subdir in either ..\WINDOWS\Application Data or the ..\All Users\Application Data dir now. No profiles.ini file at all for K-Meleon now, even though there *is* a profiles.ini for Firefox in ..\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox dir for my FF v20014
Yah, KM is an underfunded project but I like it :) , afaik they're staying a bit off the FF path but still gecko
I don't quite see this as "single-user", more as "single-admin-user", since a single user might still be (should be) a restricted user account, which would have no write access there ;) Unless single-user does not only mean just one person using it, but one person with just one account... well, anyway, I'm drifting away from the compatibility issue ;)
What would be important are the files you see in C:\Program Files\K-Meleon\Profiles\ then. Next to the Default subfolder you mentioned, are there any files in there? The profiles.dat I mentioned? Or a registry.dat file?
Profiles themselves could actually be anywhere if the user moves them, so this one profile control file (profiles.dat, registry.dat, nsreg.dat, profiles.ini, ...) is the important one Spybot-S&D uses to locate profiles.
..\Profiles\ both a pluginreg.dat and a registry.dat
as well as the \default\ dir
Ah, thanks a lot, that is the information I needed :)
In that case I'll add support for the registry.dat file there to the next release!
Mucho Obrigado & Thank you kindly, Sir!
darkraven_ph
2008-06-28, 14:09
first of all i would like to say thanks for the new S&D 1.6 beta 2 it is much faster indeed than its predecessor and good scanning against malware.
can you add realtime protection to its final release and scan option in right click menu so it could scan each folders and files, to choice by the user:red:
Don't know if this is an issue with 1.6b2 vs b1 or if it is just the particular infections on the machines, but I have now installed 1.6b2 on 3 infected machines, and all 3, with different spyware, lock up during the removal stage (actually, they don't even seem to start the removal). I have left them for several hours, and also tried in Safe mode. 2 are Dell Dimensions (different models) and one looks like cheap custom PC.
I have been able to run web AV scanners and other anti-spyware stuff (all legit) but IRC.zapchast for example is on one of them, and Spybot is still finding it.
I will try to downgrade to 1.6b1 to see if there is any difference. That version I know works on some systems, since I have been using it.
Thanks!
It's beta 2, and it's fixed in RC 1 :)
K-Meleon has a lot of changes behind it already, might be it's different again ;)
Early versions used <$PROGRAMFILES>\K-Meleon\Profiles\profiles.dat as the index file for profiles. Quite bad of course.
Soon afterwards, it went to <$APPDATA>\K-Meleon\registry.dat, which is more the Mozilla/SeaMonkey style (plus <$APPDATA>\Roaming\... and <$APPDATA>\Local\... for Vista of course).
Just guessing, do you see a file <$APPDATA>\K-Meleon\profiles.ini now? That would be the Firefox profile scheme that more and more Mozilla clones are using.
Or did they switch to the FF3 base already? But that should be supported in the stand-alone immunization demo then.
Hi,
Spybot 1.6.2.46 only shows the default profile in Immunize, and not multiple profiles.
With K-meleon 1.5.3, profile information appears to be stored in <$APPDATA>\K-Meleon\profiles.ini
Here is a copy of my profiles.ini:
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=0
[Profile0]
Name=default
Path=default/oad5czlu.slt
IsRelative=1
Default=0
[Profile1]
Name=z
Path=z/yzprqq0d.slt
IsRelative=1
Default=0
[Profile2]
Name=yy
Path=44katcpt.yy
IsRelative=1
Default=0
[Profile3]
Name=zz
Path=dndcd27p.zz
IsRelative=1
Default=1
Is there a way to enable these multiple profiles to show up and be immunized?
EDIT: Apologies for posting in the wrong thread, but can't delete, and don't want to double post by creating a new thread.
Cheers,
I did file it in project tools (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=385).
Does the new BrowserCI version 1.6.4 (http://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php?id=26) (up in about 1 to 2 hours) show up all K-Meleon profiles now?